Common Application changes for next admission cycle

The Common Application announced modifications for the 2011-12 application season earlier this month. The application was changed to reflect an increasingly diverse applicant pool, adding questions about marital status, children and military status along with a more detailed section on language proficiency.

The application has evolved to accommodate increasing numbers of nontraditional students, according to executive director Rob Killion. For example, older applicants who have put their postsecondary education on hold may now explain the context of their absences.

“This is just more data to help colleges understand who students are and how they got here,” he said.

In addition, the language proficiency question now contains five categories for applicants to check off: “speak,” “read,” “write,” “first language” or “spoken at home.”

There are also new specifications in the essay instructions, setting a minimum of 250 words in addition to the maximum of 500 words.

However, the Common Application board decided against adding a question about sexual orientation to the application.

Killion explained there were many factors in the debate over the question. He said that there is concern that the question may have been considered shameful and may have been used to single out applicants. Moreover, he said, not all applicants are sure or comfortable about their orientation, and some may not have made this information public to their parents or guidance counselors.

The new version of the application does include a “civil union/domestic partners” option in indicating the marital status of an applicant’s parents.

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University spokeswoman Emily Aronson explained that the application’s updates would not have a major impact on the University’s overall admission process.

“The additional questions on the Common Application may provide more nuanced detail in some cases, but our admission office has always requested any information necessary to make a fully informed decision,” Aronson said, citing the University’s required supplement as “quite robust” and helpful in determining Princeton-specific information.

Aronson also said that nearly all applicants have the opportunity to share their personal stories and aspirations with the admission office through alumni interviews.

“The admission office welcomes all information that students want to provide about themselves,” Aronson said.

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LGBT peer educators expressed different reactions to the Common Application’s decision not to include the sexual orientation question.

Jack Thornton ’13 said her initial reaction was to agree with the board’s decision, explaining that forcing people to label themselves at such a young age is unfair and irrelevant.

“In my mind, this is akin to inquiring about someone’s height or weight or eye color. Why does it matter?” she asked. Rather, Thornton said that the Common Application should highlight an applicant’s personality, intellect and achievements, “not overshadow their hard work and individuality with unnecessary labels.”

Andrew Blumenfeld ’13 said he feels the question should have been included in this year’s application, as the challenges and opportunities of establishing sexual orientation may very well shape a student’s pre-college experiences.

“No student should ever be denied or admitted based upon any one factor, but to ignore such a significant factor when understanding the whole applicant is unnecessarily negligent,” Blumenfeld said.

Tobias Rodriguez ’11 expressed ambivalence toward the matter.

“I think there should be more focus on increasing LGBT friendliness on campuses before we start asking high school seniors to reveal their sexual orientation,” he said.

The University switched to exclusively accepting the Common Application with a Princeton-specific supplement in 2009, a change first affecting the applicants to the Class of 2014.